Lost Brother, You Will Be Found
by Myra109
Summary: His brother Eric was murdered (well, he went missing. His body was never found, but his blood was) almost five years prior. When an incident drags the memories of Eric up again, Percy Weasley is determined to finally find his brother's killer after so long. But at what cost? Will he end up just like Eric? AU, mentions of rape and murder


_Hello, everyone. Just a short story I thought of._

 ** _Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter._**

 ** _WARNINGS: MENTIONS OF RAPE AND MURDER_**

* * *

The _incident_ left Percy breathless.

Percy was wandering through the neighborhood on that summer day in the July before his sixth year. His house was even more chaotic than usual with the arrival of Harry Potter, who the twins and Ron had rescued from his relatives using a dangerous, flying car. With another person in the house, it was utter mayhem. Even more so than usual, I mean.

He walked past the house of one of their neighbors.

Mr. Henry Barns was a nice, middle aged man, if a bit strange and isolated. He rarely talked to anyone, preferring to be left to his gardening and his empty house, for he had no wife and no children. He was nearly bald with only a handful of gray hairs stretching over his scalp, and his blue eyes… they were slightly creepy to Percy, but everyone called him crazy when he said that. It's just that whenever the man passes the Burrow on his walks, his eyes seem to gravitate towards Percy, even if his entire family is in the yard, and that creeped him out, but it probably meant nothing, so Percy had let it go long ago.

Today, Mr. Barns was wearing a tan jacket over a striped, button up shirt and blue jeans covered in spots of dirt. He was loading something into his truck, struggling to heave it onto the bed of the truck.

Percy rushed over and grabbed the side of the large duffle right before it would've fallen on Mr. Barns's foot.

Immediately, Mr. Barns seemed to grow nervous as Percy helped him lift the heavy bag onto the bed of the truck.

"Thank you, Percy," he said as Percy went to close the gate, only to freeze.

The bag was unzipped a small amount towards the end, and Percy's breath hitched at seeing a pocket knife gleaming in the small light allowed into the bag. A small ginger curl was stuck to the blade by what looked like blood.

Mr. Barnes rushed to snap the gate closed, and Percy regained his composure.

"Have a nice day, Mr. Barns," he said as casually as he could manage before continuing to walk down the path.

"You, too, Percy!" Mr. Barns called with a smile, thinking Percy hadn't seen anything.

Percy glanced over his shoulder as Mr. Barns got into his car and drove away. A soon as the car disappeared around the corner, Percy raced back towards the house and skirted around the side of the house until he found the small basement window.

He glanced around. The houses were so spread out around here that it was unlikely anyone would see him, but it was probably wise to take an extra precaution.

Call it a hunch, but Percy knew he had to get into that house.

You're probably wondering why that red hair, that blood… why it was so significant. I'll tell you why.

Many people don't know this, but the Weasleys had another child. A boy, born in the years between Charlie and Percy. They named him Eric, and he looked a lot like Percy with curly red hair and a lean, tall body; the only difference was that Eric didn't wear glasses.

When Percy was eleven and Eric was thirteen, Eric went on a walk in the woods during the afternoon. Percy stayed at home to help their mother with the dishes, even though Eric had invited him and his mother assured him it would've been fine if he went. Still, he chose to stay.

When Eric hadn't returned by dinner, Percy's mum had sent the young boy to call his brother inside.

Percy called twice, but Eric didn't answer, so he followed Eric's usual trail in the woods (there wasn't a designated trail, but Eric always went in the same direction, so they called his path Eric's Trail). Percy wandered around for a few minutes before he slipped in something, and he grumbled, thinking he'd slipped in a puddle, but when he looked down, his clothes were covered in a sticky, warm, red liquid.

Blood.

Eric was no where in sight, but blood covered a patch of grass the size of their car. Not only that, but Eric's clothes and a few ginger curls (just like the one stuck to the knife) had been left behind.

Percy had screamed bloody murder (literally).

Eric's body was never found. The amount of blood found at the crime scene meant it was incredibly unlikely that Eric had survived. Percy held onto hope when everyone else gave up.

After two years and still no lead, no body, no Eric… Percy gave up, too, and finally began to grieve.

He thought that they'd never find Eric's killer. Until now.

Percy leaned against the house and kicked backwards, shattering the basement window.

Percy, who had always been the skinniest one in the family (although he was also the tallest), slipped through the window and dropped to the floor.

Nothing looked suspicious in the basement, so he headed for the stairs.

(He didn't notice a section of loose floorboards creak under his feet).

Percy climbed the steps, and after a quick look around, he concluded that the downstairs was clear, so he headed upstairs.

He peaked into each room, but for the most part, he headed straight for the man's bedroom.

Percy glanced around and saw nothing, but a thought crossed his mind.

When Percy hid things in his room, where did he always hide them?

He took a few steps, and a floorboard creaked so loudly, he couldn't possibly not notice it.

Percy grinned. Bingo.

Percy dropped to his knees and whipped aside the rug concealing the creaky floorboard.

It was there, plain as day. It jutted out from the floor with a small lip peaking over the rest of the flat floorboards surrounding it. Percy pulled it up, and his hand explored the small compartment beneath.

He found… a book.

Percy opened the book and stared at the first page.

 **SUBJECT W** was written across the top, and Percy's breath hitched when he saw what was below it.

A picture of Percy. Not Eric. Him.

Percy turned the page and saw pictures of him with his family, him taking walks, him doing chores.

Even… Percy nearly got sick when he saw a picture of himself sleeping. It was a close up, meaning there hadn't been a window in the way. No. This had been taken from inside his house.

Percy turned the page and saw several angry scrawls.

 **WRONG KID!** had been written at the top, right above a picture of a terrified Eric, covered in blood, but still alive.

 _I got the wrong kid. I only saw the kid from behind when I snuck up on him and threw a bag over his head before cutting him and taking off his clothes. I didn't look at him until I returned home, and that's when I realized that I had grabbed Eric Weasley instead of his brother, Percy._

Barns had been targeting Percy, not Eric. Percy couldn't believe it. All these years, he'd wondered why someone would take Eric, but they didn't even want Eric. They'd been after Percy.

Percy flipped the page and found a ginger haired curl taped to the page beside a picture of Eric.

He flipped the page again and nearly threw up when he saw multiple pictures of Eric naked and… he didn't even want to think of his brother having to go through that, so he continued flipping the page until he came to the last one.

 **SUBJECT EW: TERMINATED ON JULY 7TH, 1991**

That was only three days ago. Eric had been alive for five years…

Percy had been so close to saving him.

Percy searched the compartment and pulled out another book, flipping it open.

 **SUBJECT PW**

Another picture of Percy was glued down below it, a more recent photo.

Percy flipped the page and found several photos of himself with his family, photos taken through his window, photos of him sleeping…

He was going to be Barns's next victim.

Percy heard the door open downstairs, and he froze.

Barns had returned.

Percy grabbed the loose floorboard and quietly placed it back into the hole, lowering it as slowly as he dared. Footsteps sounded from downstairs, slowing and speeding up, as though Barns could hear Percy breathing all the way downstairs.

Percy dropped the floorboard, and it clicked back into place.

Running footsteps raced up the stairs, and Percy grabbed both of the books, scrambling to open the window. His plan was to climb down to the edge of the small roof covering the porch and drop down from there, but Mr. Barns flew into the room, hands outstretched to grab Percy.

Percy panicked and leaped out the window, rolling down the small piece of roof and falling the last few feet to the ground.

His back connected with the earth, and Percy inhaled, sharply, as pain burned through his body. He couldn't get up; he couldn't climb to his feet. It hurt too much.

"Get up, Percy! Get up!"

That voice… it was so familiar.

"Percy!"

Eric…

"Get up!"

A cold hand touched his arm, and Percy shivered at the freezing touch. The freezing touch that came from a ghost.

Percy didn't stop to look for Eric's ghost or Mr. Barns as he shot to his feet and bolted into the woods.

He could hear Barns chasing him, and Percy knew he wouldn't be able to out run him, so he dropped to his knees and dug up as much dirt as possible. He dropped the books into the hole and covered them with dirt, stomping on it until the ground looked undisturbed.

Percy ran the other direction, and he made it several yards. It was another five minute sprint to his house when Barns grabbed him from behind.

"Where are the books?" he hissed.

"I hid them," Percy said. "You'll never find them."

"And neither will you," Barns snapped as he clamped a hand over Percy's mouth, dragging the struggling boy back towards his house.

Barns yanked Percy into the basement, and Percy continued screaming into the man's palm, as well as biting and licking and kicking and hitting him, but the man refused to release him.

The man removed some floorboards from the floor and dragged Percy down a flight of steps. Then he removed a few heavy boxes off of the ground to reveal a circular hole leading down into blackness.

Barns shoved him into the hole while Percy yelled and fought him. It was useless. Percy found himself clinging to the ladder on the side of the hole, and Barns raised his foot.

"Are you going to climb down, or do I need to kick you down?" he demanded. "And kid, it's a long way down."

Percy nodded, imagining the awful fall. If it was truly a long way down, Percy could break his legs, maybe even more than that, and would be stranded so far below the surface that no one would hear him call for help.

He needed to be able to run when he got the chance.

Percy slowly began climbing down the ladder.

Once he reached the bottom (and it was, indeed, a long way down), Percy found himself standing in a short hallway with three doors and a dead end on each side.

Barns joined him and grabbed his upper arms, pushing him into the closest room.

"I'm assuming you want to know what happened to your brother," Barns said, casually. "He lasted five years, longer than most, but then I got bored of him. Back when I kidnapped him, your mother kept the rest of you very close for years. She only stopped nearly three years after Eric went missing. That's when I started planning to go after you.

"Eric didn't know. For two years, he was in the dark about it. Until I took him upstairs to use the shower- guarding him, closely, of course- and he found a picture of you sleeping. He knew it was you, even if you are older. He tried to escape, and that's when I slit his throat. I cut one of his ginger curls by mistake, and it got stuck to the knife. I believe that's how you found out, correct?"

Percy nodded, trying not to display how truly terrified he was by now.

"As for the body, it's right here," Barns stated, stomping his foot on a nearby patch of concrete.

Percy nearly cried at the thought of Eric's body rotting there after so many years of torture.

"As for where I kept him when he was alive," Barns stated, dragging the boy into the last room.

This room had a mattress, a toilet, some books, a telly, a sink, and some clothes folded in the corner.

"Welcome to your new home, Percy," the man smirked, fiddling with the half a dozen locks on the door.

That's when Percy lost it.

This man went after Percy, kidnapped Eric by mistake, tortured and raped him several times for five years, went after Percy again, killed Eric, and was now going to subject Percy to the same torture Eric had gone through.

Percy snapped.

He grabbed the cover off of the toilet and smashed it over the man's head. The man had let his guard down, and he barely had time to display his shock before he crumbled to the floor, and Percy kicked him in the head. Not hard enough to kill him, but hard enough to make sure he was unconscious.

Percy bolted out of the door, climbed up the tube (or whatever it was), and covered the entrance with the heaviest boxes in the room. Then, he sprinted back into the basement and out of the house.

Percy found the books easily enough. He'd buried them beside the tree that held a wooden swing him and Eric used to play on, and he dug them up, holding them in his white knuckled grip as he raced towards home.

Everyone looked up as Percy burst inside, and he found that he had interrupted them in the middle of lunch.

"I thought you were going for a walk, not a marathon," Fred commented with a chuckle before he stopped laughing as he noticed Percy's wide eyed, terrified expression.

Percy turned to his mom and dad, holding out the books.

"Eric," he whispered, and his mother flipped open the book to one of the awful naked photos.

His father stared at Percy, taking in his multitude of bruises and cuts and injuries (most from falling off the roof and getting dragged by Barns) and put the pieces together.

His parents sobbed and embraced Percy in front of their puzzled children and an even more bewildered Harry Potter.

They'd almost lost another child…

* * *

Barns was arrested after being found in the underground room, and the police congratulated Percy for solving not only Eric's murder case, but forty-nine others (although indirectly, and yes, the man was sick enough to kill that many people, most of them children and teens).

Percy had nightmares for weeks after what happened, and even after his nightmares stopped, sometimes he'd wake up to find his mother or even his father sitting at his bed side, watching him sleep as though they were afraid something bad might happen to him if they didn't watch him closely enough.

Things slowly started to go back to normal- well, as normal as it got in the Weasley family- but there was one more thing Percy had to do before he could move on.

* * *

Percy cradled a picture of him and Eric in his hands as he crossed the cemetery, coming to a stop beside Eric's grave, which now had a body to go with the headstone.

Percy knelt into the dirt and placed the photograph upon the ground, using a medium sized rock to keep it from blowing away.

"Goodbye, Eric," he murmured, saying goodbye for the final time and heading back home.

He didn't notice a red haired ghost pick up the photo and smile, staring after his brother with an expression that was almost glowing with gratitude.

Eric Weasley, who had been lost, had finally been found, and that meant he could finally rest.

* * *

 _How'd you like it? It was just a short mystery story I thought of while I was watching the Lovely Bones. Hope you liked it!_

 _Thanks for reading!_


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